Appalling state of the monorail cabins

[willtravel]

People should post these to the wdw facebook page on a regular basis. Even if they're only there for an hour before taken down, the message would get out.

Then you keep posting. Especially the one with the mold.

 

[marni1971]

This is all well and good in theory but,
1. There are lots of malls. There is only one Disney World.
2. If Disney World's reduced maintenance and cleaning was going to drive guests away it would have started happening in the mid '90s. It didn't and it won't.

And there in is a core problem. So long as people keep paying to come, why should the company bother to spend more than the bare minimum?

 

[alphac2005]

Disney has clearly learned that they can widen their profit margins by cutting back on cleaning and maintainance yet still see attendance increase. Why on earth would they reverse course on this? Believe me, there will never be any going back to the "old days."

When you extrapolate their numbers, which they now combine to hide the sluggish to zero growth in actual attendance numbers in Florida, you actually get a different answer. They've slashed expenses and raised revenue from nearly the same number of customers year after year for several years. If I look at their business through a lens of business knowledge and good old common sense, it's bewildering. There is continuous exploding population growth worldwide (and particularly in countries that WDW targets) and upward mobility into the middle class in many of these countries. Just based on those two factors, Disney should see healthy attendance growth, but they aren't.

Gimmicks and squeezing the stagnant amount of customers is what they've been reduced to. The fact that Iger has to now latch onto record attendance at the MK because they are systematically funneling customers to the MK and away from other parks to defer costs and necessary expansion at those parks is disengenous at best and insulting to those with a clue as to what's going on in Florida.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

This is all well and good in theory but,
1. There are lots of malls. There is only one Disney World.
2. If Disney World's reduced maintenance and cleaning was going to drive guests away it would have started happening in the mid '90s. It didn't and it won't.

I do see your point but wdw is not the only theme park in Florida. Much like my mall analogy, there are others that are around. Sure, they're not disney, but they are catching up to disneys lead. And with disneys price points, they are looking better everyday.

I think a combination of poor maintenance and raising prices will cause guests to explore other options. Plus, as families get older, those little girls aren't going to be as interested in meet n greets as they are when they're 5. Another poster mentioned that the average family returns to disney every 7 years. That five year old is now 12. Would she be more interested in meeting Snow White or exploring Harry potters world? Or checking out the marine life at sea world?

 

[tissandtully]

There is no one that cleans the boats nightly anymore. There used to be but that has since been discontinued. Do not look over the sides. It is beyond disgusting. Gum and such down to the waterline. Garbage cans were removed due to security concerns. Seats are being removed to make room for strollerpalooza.

Monorails do have cleaning crews that come out nightly. What they are doing I have no idea. They are supposed to be cleaning and making them all shiny. I have seen and heard them up there supposedly cleaning numerous times. Please send these pictures to guest relations with time and date so they can be addressed.

The trams from the parking lot are in just as deplorable condition. They are rusty in the cabs. Run very badly. The seats are cracked and peeling. Holes in the exterior body areas. On some, the speakers do not even work. Screws fall out of the overhead and hit guests in the head. They are not truly cleaned but simply wiped down with a towel in the morning by some very nice parking ladies.

Disney transportation is in a very sad condition all around.

Maybe they should take all the change that people throw into the docks to hire some maintenance for the boats. Seriously, have you seen all that change? Who does that?

 

[Sam Magic]

No, it wouldn't be hard to do at all.

It would require a few meetings in advance with some middle managers and a few designers, and then some execs to approve some funds, and then some guys in the staff shop to fabricate some stuff, and then some guys in the maintenance shop to install it. It would take about 90 days from start to finish.

But to start that process, it takes a senior leader to ride the monorail and realize there's a problem their underlings didn't include in the last happy-shiny PowerPoint show.

Yeah because TDO can do that...

 

[rael ramone]

There is no one that cleans the boats nightly anymore. There used to be but that has since been discontinued. Do not look over the sides. It is beyond disgusting. Gum and such down to the waterline. Garbage cans were removed due to security concerns. Seats are being removed to make room for strollerpalooza.

Monorails do have cleaning crews that come out nightly. What they are doing I have no idea. They are supposed to be cleaning and making them all shiny. I have seen and heard them up there supposedly cleaning numerous times. Please send these pictures to guest relations with time and date so they can be addressed.

The trams from the parking lot are in just as deplorable condition. They are rusty in the cabs. Run very badly. The seats are cracked and peeling. Holes in the exterior body areas. On some, the speakers do not even work. Screws fall out of the overhead and hit guests in the head. They are not truly cleaned but simply wiped down with a towel in the morning by some very nice parking ladies.

Disney transportation is in a very sad condition all around.

They don't have time to keep the monorails & boats clean. They are too busy neglecting the bathrooms.

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

Tokyo Disney monorail:

Disney World used to look like that. The 'Disney' in the name didn't denote cartoon franchises, but a place where everything was spotless, freshly painted, friendly and reassuring.
While I understand that in 2013 East Asia is First World and America is Third World, UNI still manages to have spotless transportation systems. Shiny and clean:

Ok, I'll be the first to say the condition of monorail black (and possibly all monorails is disgusting), and I wrote Disney complaining about Splash mountain last trip...especially when the Laughin place fountains didn't work ever...and the "FSU" gopher didn't pop out...so yeah little things like that bother me almost more than the whole "not building a potter swatter quick enough"...

BUT that said...
Are we really comparing the upkeep/maintenance of a moving walkway...to that of a monorail? As Coach Ditka would say..."come on...man"

 

[tissandtully]

They don't have time to keep the monorails & boats clean. They are too busy neglecting the bathrooms.

I like the new urinals they installed, but they blow urine everywhere.

 

[BubbaQuest]

BUT that said...
Are we really comparing the upkeep/maintenance of a moving walkway...to that of a monorail? As Coach Ditka would say..."come on...man"

I would much rather be on a clean moving walkway than stuck on a monorail that stinks. If WDW thinks monorails are too costly and complicated to operate and maintain, I would be very happy with clean covered moving walkways between the parks.

 

[Sam Magic]

Honestly Disney does not need a 'Potter Swatter'...unless they keep maintenance the way it is now. What kept and on occasion still keeps people coming back to Disney is the quality of the parks, it's easy accessibility, and the name. So if TDO and the Disney Corporation can get their act together and clean the parks, get new monorails, update future world, take out the alcohol, and make Disney a family friendly place again along with periodically adding something new a 'Potter Swatter' is not needed.

Until the miracle happens Disney World will probably be sold off in pieces until very little if anything remains.
(I'm calling Disney's Wide World of Sports and Disney Springs to be the first areas sold off)

 

[Sam Magic]

I would much rather be on a clean moving walkway than stuck on a monorail that stinks. If WDW thinks monorails are too costly and complicated to operate and maintain, I would be very happy with clean covered moving walkways between the parks.

Yeah, I agree.

 

[scottnj1966]

This has been a problem for a number of years now. The excuse was that they were down two monorails and did not have the time to work on them. Then they started cutting hours of operation for the monorails, no more extra magic hours run, and only one how after the part closes. Now they have their full fleet online again but hours still cut. Why do they not have time? It sounds like they do not want to spend the money on maintenance, at least not as much as they did in the past. Its not only the monorails needing help.

Hopefully they do have a plan to upgrade the interiors. Maybe that will happen when they do the new cockpit control upgrades.

 

[lazyboy97o]

BUT that said...
Are we really comparing the upkeep/maintenance of a moving walkway...to that of a monorail? As Coach Ditka would say..."come on...man"

It is not just the moving walkway but the entirety of the walkway space. That walkway is heavily trafficked every day, a supposed cause of the monorail's distressed state.

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

It is not just the moving walkway but the entirety of the walkway space. That walkway is heavily trafficked every day, a supposed cause of the monorail's distressed state.

I just am not sure we can compare a WIDE walk way...with a cramped compartment. But that is no excuse for Disney...I just think using the Uni walkway as an example of how much cleaner/better Universal is, is a little misleading...cleaning cement and carpet are not the same process. etc.

 

[Bairstow]

When you extrapolate their numbers, which they now combine to hide the sluggish to zero growth in actual attendance numbers in Florida, you actually get a different answer. They've slashed expenses and raised revenue from nearly the same number of customers year after year for several years. If I look at their business through a lens of business knowledge and good old common sense, it's bewildering. There is continuous exploding population growth worldwide (and particularly in countries that WDW targets) and upward mobility into the middle class in many of these countries. Just based on those two factors, Disney should see healthy attendance growth, but they aren't.

We're still in the middle of a worldwide economic recession. Except at parks that are still growing out their build and presence (Hong Kong Disneyland) attendance is pretty much flat across the board because there is no upward mobility right now. The fact that Disney World has been trending slightly upward is a testament to the fact that the company expects what guests want and can deliver, and those expectations do not include surgically-clean monorail interiors.

 

[wdwmagic]

We're still in the middle of a worldwide economic recession. Except at parks that are still growing out their build and presence (Hong Kong Disneyland) attendance is pretty much flat across the board because there is no upward mobility right now. The fact that Disney World has been trending slightly upward is a testament to the fact that the company expects what guests want and can deliver, and those expectations do not include surgically-clean monorail interiors.

Disney theme parks were founded on being surgically clean. Walt was fanatical about cleanliness and using that as a differentiating factor for the Disney experience.

 

[lazyboy97o]

We're still in the middle of a worldwide economic recession. Except at parks that are still growing out their build and presence (Hong Kong Disneyland) attendance is pretty much flat across the board because there is no upward mobility right now. The fact that Disney World has been trending slightly upward is a testament to the fact that the company expects what guests want and can deliver, and those expectations do not include surgically-clean monorail interiors.

It's not just the walkway. It is everything. Look up above and compare that to "it's a small world."

 

[SherlockWayne]

Universal does do a decent job of keeping the walkways clean, however, they do a lousy job of keeping the moving walkways and escalators operating. I am fortunate in that I get to visit the Universal parks often, and honestly, I think the walkways have been non-functional on 75% of my visits. I guess it's fine though, as it seems like people can't quite understand the concept of a moving WALKway, nor do they have the courtesy to keep to the side if they're going to block the way.

 

[flynnibus]

The shortage of more hours for 'maintenance' should not be used interchangeably with simple CLEANING. You don't need to tag and cycle a monorail to put a cleaning lady on it. People are blending concepts.

Simple wipe downs like the type that would have prevented the dirt/mold build up on the ceiling - not something that requires high end mechanics or exclusive locked out access.